1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for discharging droplets using a droplet discharge head that discharges a liquid material as droplets, and to a droplet discharge apparatus provided with a droplet discharge head.
2. Related Art
A droplet discharge apparatus is conventionally known which has a droplet discharge head for discharging a liquid material as droplets, and which deposits the liquid material in an arbitrary position of a drawing target by discharging a droplet of a liquid material and depositing the droplet in an arbitrary position on the drawing target. Liquid material that contains a material of a functional film such as a color filter film of a color liquid crystal display can be coated with good precision in an arbitrary position and in any amount by using such a droplet discharge apparatus. The functional film can be formed to any thickness and in any shape by drying the coated liquid material.
The discharge amount per discharge of the liquid material discharged from the droplet discharge head varies depending on the viscosity of the liquid material and other characteristics. However, it is possible that fixed characteristics of the liquid material fed to the droplet discharge head will not necessarily be maintained depending on differences in production lots, changes with the lapse of time of the liquid material that is stored in a form that can be sent to the droplet discharge head, and other factors.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2004-209429 discloses a droplet discharge system, a method of measuring the discharge amount of a droplet discharge head, and a method of adjusting the discharge amount of a droplet discharge head. In the disclosure, the actual discharge weight is accurately measured and the discharge amount is adjusted so as to achieve an accurate value in correspondence with the measured value, whereby droplets can be accurately discharged.